Yoga: Sublime or Ridiculous?

In a way, it had to happen.

As with most things that enter Western popular culture, yoga has entered the domain of the dumbed-down. The two latest trends in yoga practice in America are things called beer-yoga and goat-yoga, which involve asana (yoga postures) while gulping pints of beer or playing with furry farm animals. Poor Patanajli must be rolling in his samadhi!

Part of this trend has to do with the way yoga spread in America: through privately owned yoga studios, who keep searching for new trends to keep their clientele coming. Competition between studios, which seem to have sprung up on almost every street corner, pushes owners to keep expanding their repertoire of services; whether in combining yoga with Pilates (fairly common,) or with Zumba (Brazilian dance) and in many other ways.

Representation of Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga-sutras

As a way of popularizing yoga, these privately owned studios, often started by brave souls (mostly women) who, in the early days, travelled to India, or studied, at great cost, under well-known masters, were very successful. Playing by the rules of the market, they struggled to find what the public wanted, and by trial-and-error, became successful. Successful business models were built, and the industry flourished.

But the downside of market-based yoga teaching is that it precludes really deep study of the tradition. In my observation, most studios offer classes in hatha yoga, hot yoga, yin-yang or Iyengar. But beyond this, not much else is taught. After all, if the rent has to be paid, the emphasis is going to be on what sells.

Traditionally, yoga is seen as a spiritual discipline, with the ultimate goal being spiritual realization. Yoga was originally practiced in the forests of India, and knowledge was passed, in the teacher’s ashram, from elder to student. The learning would take many, many years.

Ashtanga yoga, or raja-yoga as it is called in the Bhagavad-Gita, is what most in the west understand as yoga, and asana, one part of it, is what is mostly taught in yoga studios. But ashtanga (eight-limbed) yoga, is much more. The eight-limbs include a moral code, contained in the Yamas and Niyamas, Asana (postures), Pranyama (breath control), Pratyahara (sensory transcendence), Dharana (Concentration) Dhyana (Meditation) and finally, the goal of yoga, Samadhi (connection with the Divine.) The Bhagavad-Gita also mentions other yoga systems, such as Bhakti-yoga, a theistic version of yoga based on devotion to the Divine. As can be seen, yoga is a much deeper topic than is mostly understood. Yoga based solely on the body, and not connected to the spirit, is limited.

The yoga market, in America anyways, seems to have reached its saturation. It seems obvious that many studios will disappear. As a yoga practitioner, I hope that those left behind, and the students they attract, will dive deeper into the subject and discover its true essence.

Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper - A Novel" published by Books We Love.

www.yogazapper.com

www.bookswelove.com

Clothes and how to wear them... by Sheila Claydon

In my book The Hollywood Collection, I write about clothes and fashion. I do the same, to some extent, in Golden Girl, another book which will be published early next year. Both these books are vintage romance, however. Books that I wrote in the seventies and eighties when I was into fashion and loved buying new clothes.

Oh how things have changed. Clothes! Do you love them or hate them, and I don't mean that in the 'let's get naked sense.' Me? The older I get, the more I hate them...well hate the ever changing fashion of them, and trying to find what best suits me. No, strike that. I know what suits me, it's just that nowadays I have to plough through a whole lot of 'mutton dressed up as lamb' stuff to find what I want.

Then there's the fit. I'm the same size now that I've always been, so how come pants sag and sweaters often have sleeves whose length is out of all proportion to the body shape. Oh, I know. It's because they are designed to be worn by young girls with pert behinds who like to pull their sleeves down over their fingers, and I have to admit they look cute. What looks cute on a teen or anyone under 40 for that matter, doesn't look cute on a woman of more mature years, however. And it's not going to change because the fashion industry is not interested in the older woman, and doesn't design for changing body shapes.

There are solutions of course. Buy expensive or find a really good dressmaker who does fittings and alterations. This is the advice I saw recently in a fashion column that I can't seem to stop reading even though most of the clothes featured are either beyond my purse or things I wouldn't be seen dead in. The same fashion editor also listed which pants give the best fit. Unfortunately I threw the article away without making a note, so here I am, back to square one.

When I was young I loved fashion. It was mini-skirts and long white boots (with matching lip-stick!) in the sixties, flares and stack heels in the seventies, leg warmers, shell suits and sweaters with garish motives in the eighties, pants-suits in the nineties, and so on and so on. I bought them all, loved bright colours and made some terrible fashion mistakes which I fortunately didn't notice at the time.

Now, however, I am much more comfortable in quieter clothes, mostly pants and tops, and shoes that are easy to walk in. They are available of course. Jeans, trainers, sweatshirts and gilets are fine for shopping, lounging around, dog walking, housework, but fashion wise they don't quite hack it, so I have a plan. From now on I am going to wear a uniform of sorts. I know what I like: slim cut pants, longish tops, scarves, boots, and on the rare occasion I wear a dress, something plain brightened up by accessories. I also hate mixing too many colours, so my future uniform will be a mix and match wardrobe that doesn't stray much beyond navy-blue, black, grey/charcoal, and to brighten it, fuchsia , pale blue, emerald green or turquoise, the colours that I know suit me well. I might also go searching for a seamstress who can take the sag out of those pants, unless I'm lucky enough to find some that fit properly. Of course I'll keep the jeans and sweatshirts because the dog still needs walking.

OK, so it might sound boring, but oh the relief. A uniform that I can put on and forget, knowing that while it might not be up there in high style, it is too conservative to ever really go out of fashion. Oh, and I'm going to buy lots of scarves as well. Bright, bright, cheerful scarves.

Go to Sheila's Books We Love author page to see the rest of her books, which are available on:

Amazon

iTunes

Kobo

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

Also visit her on Facebook and have a chat :

Sheila Claydon on facebook

Support of my Writing by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 

 

My family and friends have been very supportive of me during my writing career. When my first two non-fiction books were published, my parents would look for them in bookstores. If they found them with only their spines showing they rearranged the books on the shelves so that the covers of mine were facing out and could be seen easier.

 

My husband is constantly telling people that I am a writer and where they can find my books. My parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren have come to book launches, sat with me during a book signing, and passed on advertising information about my new books through social media and other means.

When they were younger my grandchildren helped out at some of my launches: acting as doormen by opening doors for customers at bookstores, singing, or playing a saxophone or flute during the interlude before my reading.

I have some friends who buy and read all my books and continually tell me how much they like them.

Thank you to my family and friends for your continued encouragement.